371

EXPERIMENTAL HARVEST OF THE

STELLER SEA LION IN ALASKAN WATERS

Marine Biological Laboratory

WOODS HOLE, MASS.

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC REPORT-FISHERIES Na 371

UNITED STATES I^EPARTMENT^QH^^FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

United States Department of the Interior, Stewart L,. Udall, SecretaryFish and Wildlife Service, Arnie J. Suomela, Commissioner

Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Donald L. McKernan, Director

EXPERIMENTAL HARVEST OF THE STELLER SEA LIONIN ALASKAN WATERS

by

Fredrik V. Thorsteinson, Richard W. Nelsonand

Dexter F. Lall

United States Fish and Wildlife ServiceSpecial Scientific Report- -Fisheries No. 371

Washington, D. C,Janury 1961

This work was financed by the Bureau of

Commercial Fisheries under Contract No.14-17-001-218, with funds made available underthe Act of July 1, 1954 (68 Stat. 376), commonlyknown as the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act.

ii

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction 1

The experimental harvest. 2

Equipment and facilities of the Arctic Maid 2

Hunting and retrieving 4

Reactions of sea lions to hunting 5

Processing • 6

Proximate composition of ground sea lion meat 10

Disposition of sea lion meat 11

Discussion 1

1

Summary ...................*. 14

Literature cited •••• 14

111

EXPERIMENTAL HARVEST OF THE STELLER SEA LIONIN ALASKAN WATERS

by

Fredrik V. Thorsteinson, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Juneau, AlaskaRichard W. Nelson, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Seattle, Wash.

Dexter F. Lall, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Kodiak, Alaska*

ABSTRACT

During the summer of 1959, a commercialfishing company, vmdercontract to the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, conducted an experi-mental harvest of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubata) inAlaska.During the expedition, 616 sea lions were killed of which 464 wereultimately processed. The yield was ZOO tons of ground meat and 9 tonsof whole livers, which was packaged in 50-pound bags, frozen, and soldthrough established commercial channels to fur farmers for feedingmink.

INTRODUCTION

The Steller sea lion (Eumetopiasjubata) has been widely condemned bythe fishing industry. Salmon, halibut,and herring fishermen have been unani-mous in their complaints about depre-dations by this mammal. The persist-ence and uniformity of the complaintsand concern over the declining salmonpack in Alaska have led to recent in-tensive study of the Steller sea lionsand their effects on the fisheries.The Alaska Department of Fish andGame and the Fisheries Research Insti-

tute of the University of Washington,through contracts with the Bureau of

Commercial Fisheries, have conductedstudies of the biology of sea lions andhave carried out surveys to study popu-lation size, distribution, and seasonalshifts in abundance. Mathisen (1958)estimates there are at least 150,000

' Formerly a Fishery Aid with the Bureau of Commer-cial Fisheries, Juneau, Alaska.

sea lions in Alaskan waters, mostof which are found on rookerieslocated along the Alaska Peninsiila andthe Aleutian Islands. Individual rookerycounts vary from 25 to 15,000 animals.

The two agencies making the

studies circulated questioiuiairesthroughout the fishing industry to docu-ment the time, location, and nature ofdajTiage done by sea lions. Returnsfrom these questionnaires indicate thatsalmon fishermen do suffer an economicloss from sea lion activities, both in

damage to gear and by loss of fishtaken from the gear (Alaska Departmentof Fish and Game, 1957).

Halibut fishermen report that attimes sea lions damage or remove somajiy fish from their gear that it is

not profitable to remain on the halibutbanks. A sample poll of halibut vesselsby the Internationail Pacific HalibutCommission in 1958 brought out thatan estimated 1.3 million povinds of hali-but were damaged or destroyed on the

grounds between Cape Saint Elias andthe Trinity Islands in the Gulf of Alaska.At dockside prices this amount ofhalibut is worth approximately $270,000(preliminary statement issued at theannual meeting of the InternationalPacific Halibut Commission, January1959). As one result of the poll, theInternational Pacific Halibut Commis-sion has required that all fishermenrecord depredation in the logbooksthat they keep for the Commission.

Stomach analyses reported in theliterature (Pike, 1958; Mathisen, 1958)indicate that the diet of sea lions is

varied and that no significant numbersof commercially important species aretaken. However, most of the stomachsamples were taken fronn sea lions onrookeries during the breeding season,and they may not reflect completelythe food habits of sea lions. Foodhabits during other seasons of the yearare unknown. Recent evidence obtainedby the Fisheries Research Instituteduring a high seas tagging program in

the North Pacific and Bering Sea pointsto possible open-sea predation on sal-mon by sea lions (Mathisen, 1958). Atpresent it appears that, except whenthey are in contact with an activefishery, sea lions take insignificantquantities of commercial species withthe possible exception of salmon.

The depredations of sea lions in the

vicinity of active fisheries are seriousbecause they cause measurable econo-mic losses by damaging fish and gearand intangible economic losses by re-ducing fishing time or frightening fish

away from the gear. Control measuresshould be applied in critical areas. Pro-grams of complete destruction of herdshave been attemptedin the past and havemet rightly deserved criticism and op-

position from conservationists through-out the nation. Bounty programs wereattempted but have been abandoned. Re-duction of a herd by a bounty system is

expensive and unwieldy and may fail to

correct the situation, because kills maynot be made at the proper place or timeor in adequate numbers.

A practical approach to the prob-lem of control may lie in commercialexploitation of these manamais. Dassow

(1956) and Kyte (1956) investigatedpossibilities of utilizing sea lions andfound that both leanmeat and liver werehigh in protein and low in oil content.The protein content was similar to

horse meat and lean whale meat, bothof which are used extensively in animalfeeds. There is a demand for an eco-nomical meat, with high-protein andlow-fat content, for use as either furfarm or fish hatchery feed in themidwestern and western states. Pilotstudies involving harvesting techniquesand handling of sea lions conducted onChernabura, one of the ShumaginIslands, by the Fisheries ResearchInstitute through a contract with theBureau of Commercial Fisheries, indi-

cates that sea lions might be takenfrom rookeries in commercial quanti-ties (Baade, et al .)' As a result, theBureau of Commercial Fisheriesawarded a contract in the spring of

1959 to a commercial fishing company,Arctic Maid Fisheries, Inc., to developtechniques for harvesting sea lions onrookeries in Alaskan waters and to

investigate markets for commercialutilization. The company operates afreezership, the motor vessel ArcticMaidi which served as mothership andbase for the operation (fig. 1). It is

the purpose of this report to presentthe results of this investigation.

THE EXPERIMENTAL HARVESTEquipment and Facilities of the Arctic

Maid

The Arctic Maid, adiesel-electricship of 960 gross tons, is 186 feet in

length and has a 39-foot beam. Powerto the ship's single screw is furnishedby twin 900-hp. diesel engines that

deliver 1,500 horsepower to the pro-peller shaft. Two 75-kw diesel gen-erators supply electric power to theship's equipment.

The ship has two 5-ton-capacityelectric cargo winches, located forwardand aft, which were used to hoist ani-mals aboard and to lower processedmeat into the hold (fig. 2).

' Baade, Robert T., Ole A. Mathisen, and Ron J. Lopp.In press. Studies on the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubata)

on Chernabura Island in the Shumagin area of Alaskaduring the summer of 1958.

Figure 1,-- Arctic Maid, mothership used in harvesting sea lions.

//

Figure 2.--Sea lions being hoisted aboard ship.

The refrigeration system of theArctic Maid consists of six 6,000-gal-lon brine tanks, four 8, 000-gallon brinetanks, and a 600-ton-capacity hold,cooled by absorption type coils. Coolingplants are two ammonia compressorseach capable of delivering 70 tons ofrefrigeration. (One ton of refrigerationis defined as cooling necessary to con-vert 1 tonof water at 32° F. into 1 ton ofice at 32° F. per 24 hours.)

The processing area was locatedforward on the brine tank deck and wasequipped with a boning table, a 15-hp.meat grinder with 3/4-inch cuttingplates, a conveyor worm, and a metalhopper from which meat was sacked.

The ship carried two 31 -footBristol Bay-type gill net boats whichwere" used to shuttle hunting partiesto the beach and to transport deadanimals. They were also used to pulldead animals from the beach into thewater.

Members of the working crew,which numbered 10 men including thecaptain, not only worked the ship butalso served as hunters or butchers. Thecook and 3 engineers brought the ship'scomplement to 14.

Hunting and Retrieving

The Arctic Maid took sea lionsfrom five of the many rookeries inwaters of the North Pacific Oceanbetween Kodiak Island and Unimak Pass(fig. 3). The first rookery visited wasMarmot Island, northeast of KodiakIsland, where 2 weeks were spent in

developing hunting and processing tech-niques. The methods evolved at MarmotIsland were employed during the re-mainder of the season. None of thecrew had previous experience in meatprocessing. At first they made them-selves available as the work dictated,but soon each man had a specific job.

j:P^"1UgamakIsland

AKcnc nAio

Figure 3.--Sea lion rookeries harvested by the Arctic Maid, 1959.

The hunting party usually consistedof three or four men. One of the gill

net boats was used to carry the partyto the beach, and a small skiff orrubber life raft was used to land themashore at the fringe of the harvestarea. The rubber raft was used whensurf conditions precluded use of the

small boat.

Sea lions were shot at fairly

close range with 30.06-c a 1 i b e r

sporting rifles equipped with opensights. Military ammunition (ordi-nary 30.06-caliber service ammu-nition, full jacketed "ball") wasused and served satisfactorily.Judgment was required in select-ing animals for shooting. Thoseshot near the edge of the water,if not killed outright, managed toget into the water and were lost.

It is extremely difficult to retrievecarcasses of animals killed toofar from the water, since adult malesweigh up to 2, ZOO pounds and fe-

males up to 1,000 pounds (Kenyonand Scheffer, 1953). Killing ceasedwhen enough animals, usually about15, were down to supply a day'swork in processing.

Manila or wire rope chokers placedthrough slots cut in the neck hide weresecured to a hauling line attached to thegill net boat. Animals were then pulledfrom the beach into the water by theboat. Once in the water the carcasseswere easily pulled to the boat- -eitherhand over hand or by using a winch.The hauling line was then freed andpassed ashore again, and the chokerswere used to secure the animals to thegunwale of the gill net boat for trans-port to the Arctic Maid.

Reactions of Sea Lions to Hunting

The reactions of sea lions to har-assment were similar in pattern on all

of the rookeries hunted. Variationswere a matter of the degree to whichthe animals reacted. This, in turn, wasdependent upon the stage of the breed-ing season. Bulls and cows were leastwary at the height of the breedingseason.

The hunting party usually landedto one side of the group of sea lions

to be hunted, out of sight if possible.Landing disturbed only nearby animals.Animals exhibited only slight alarmover the gill net boat when it was oper-ated within 80 to 100 yards of the beach.

At the first shots, most animalsshowed considerable fright and manybolted toward the water. The first rushto the water comprised females withoutpups, yovmg animals, and bachelorbulls. Harem bvills and cows with new-born pups were extremely reluctant to

leave and either did not move at all orstopped their flight short of the water'sedge. Continued fire forced these ani-mals into the water where they milledslightly offshore and showed a strongtendency to return. While in the waterthe animals displayed great interestin the activities on the beach but rel-atively little interest in the boat orskiff which was often nearer at hand.Sea lions became increasingly waryand frightened more readily after suc-cessive days of shooting. At the first

volley of shots , all but the most stubbornbulls and cows rushed immediately to

the water. Beaches were quickly clearedwhen additional shots were fired.

Continued hunting over the samearea caused an emigration to nearbyrocks or a lateral movement along thebeach if space was available. Emigra-tion began after 3 to 5 days of hunting.It was not a mass movement but wasobserved as a perceptible thinning in

the ranks of sea lions each day. Younganimals were the first to move. Thepups either moved away because offright or were herded by the females.

Harem bulls that were killed werereplaced by idle or bachelor bulls veryquickly. Mathisen (1958) reports thaton Chernabura Island harem bulls werereplaced within less than 30 minutesafter their death and frequently within10 minutes. A striking example of this

replacement occurred on the UgamakIsland rookery in Unimak Pass. Onearea of this rookery was hunted in-tensively for 9 days. On the first dayof the hunt, Z5 bulls and approximately

300 cows occupied the area, and many of replacement is unknown, but it oc-idle bulls were observed on adjacent curred overnight,rocks and beaches from 300 yards to amile away. A total of 156 bulls were The rookeries visited and the re-killed, an average of 1 7 per day. An suits of the harvest are summarizedadditional 12 were wounded. The speed in table 1.

Table 1, -- Summary of experimental sea lion harvest

Figure 4.—Sea lion prepared for skinning.

Figure 5.- -Deck hooks inserted into hide at neckline allow

ship's gear to pull carcass away from hide.

done, starting from the neck, by cuttingaround the carcass as close to thebone as possible down the length of thecarcass (fig. 6). This resulted in a

blanket of bone-free meat. Afterflensing, the carcass was dropped over-board (fig. 7). The meat, along withthe shoulders and livers, was placedon the deck of the ship to cool over-night.

The internal temperature of thesea lions at the time they were proc-essed ranged from 99° to 102° F. Sincethe night air temperature averaged46° F, the meat was cooled to between50° and 60° F.

On the morning after the butcher-ing, the shoulders were boned and all

of the meat was ground in a 15 -hp.grinder through a 3/4 -inch plate (fig.

8). The ground meat was carried byan auger-type conveyor into a hopper.From the hopper the meat was passedthrough an adjustable door into poly-ethylene bags (fig. 9). The bags wererested on a scale and each one wasfilled to 50 pounds. A wood frame wasused on the scale to keep the bagsfrom tipping during filling. The bagswere fastened shut with wire staples.The livers were packaged in the samemanner, except that they were not

Figure 6.--Trimiiung meat from sea lion carcass.

ground but were packaged whole or in

large pieces.

The bags of meat and liver werelaid out individually on the freezer holddeck to freeze before being stacked forstorage (fig. 10). Temperature of themeat at the time it went into cold storagewas between 50° and 55° F. Hold tem-peratures were usually maintained at0° to 5° F. but, on some occasions,temperature reached as high as 10° F.for periods of as long as a day. It wasfound that 10 to 20 hours were requiredto bring the temperature of the bags of

Figure 7,--Carcass, after flensing, ready to be

dropped overboard.

meat to 30° F. and approximately 3

days to completely freeze them.

The average yield of meat peranimal was 419 pounds and the averageyield of liver was 39 pounds (table 1).

However, the average weight of 84whole livers that were weighed indi-

vidually was 48 pounds. The liver

weights ranged from 15 to 80 pounds.Frequently during butchering only partof the liver was recovered. This ac-counts for the difference in the yield

of 39 pounds of liver per animal andthe average of 48 pounds for the livers

weighed individually. Also, blooddrained from the livers while theywere being cooled caused additional

weight loss.

Figure 8.- -Grinder for sea lion meat.

Figure 9.—Crew members packaging ground sea lion meat.

Figure 10.- -Bags of sea lion meat in hold for freezing.

Early in the season it was fovind

that two to three times as much meatcould be obtained from male sea lions

as from females for about the sameexpenditure of time. As a result, farmore males than females were killed,

452 males and only 12 females beingultimately processed.

Hides were saved and frozen ontwo occasions. The raw hides weregenerally poor in quality because of

wounds and scars from fighting. Only20 hides (40 sections) were saved.Four whole skinned carcasses werealso saved and frozen.

Proximate Analysis of Ground SeaLion Meat

Samples of ground sea lion meatwere collected at various times andplaced in cold storage for later usein determining the proximate analysisof the meat. The samples were col-lected during the packaging operationsby taking small amounts of the groundmeat at random as it passed from thehopper into the polyethylene bags used

for packaging. Three 5 -pound sampleswere collected whenever sampling wasdone.

The proximate analyses were com-pleted by the Ketchikan TechnologicalLaboratory, Bureau of CommercialFisheries, Ketchikan, Alaska. Dupli-cate determinations were made of each5 -pound sample.

The results of the analyses arepresented in table 2. The ground sealion meat was quite uniform in com-position. The moisture content of the

meat ranged from 71.6 to 75.5 percentand averaged 73.6 percent. The oil

content ranged from 3.4 to 7.7 per-cent and averaged 5.0 percent. Theprotein content ranged from 18.4 to

21.8 percent and averaged 20.4 percent.The ash content ranged from 1.0 to

1.3 percent and averaged 1.1 percent.These values do not include the sampletaken on June 11, as it was composedof shoulder meat only. The shoulderswere removed from animals killed onJune 7 and 8. They were held in re-frigerated sea water at 32° F. until

10

Table 2. -- Proximate composition (in percent) of ground sea lion meat determined bythe method used by the Association of Official Agricultural Chennists

Date and location Number of Moisture Oil Protein Ashof sample animals-

Marmot Island

it necessary to handle them with the

ship's cargo winches. Therefore, onlytwo carcasses could be butchered at

any one time. Skinning was not diffi-

cult once the method was developed andthe crew had become experienced.Trimming the meat from the car-casses, particularly the shoulders, re-quired more time than any other phaseof the operation.

Any future attempt at harvestingsea lions should make use of special-ized equipment to reduce the amountof labor required to process the car-casses. Some method of handling morethan two carcasses at once would beneeded. This could be done by usingan overhead conveyor from which a

number of carcasses could be sus-pended. It would be difficult to elimi-nate hand trimming to remove the

meat from the carcasses and shoulders,but the use of time-saving devicessuch as conveyors would allow moretime for trimming.

The method used to cool meataboard the Arctic Maid would not besatisfactory for a larger operation.First, spreading meat on the deck to

cool would not be practical becausespace would be insufficient. Second,to cool the meat by spreading it on the

ship's deck, it was necessary to leaveit on the deck over night. An alter-

nate method of chilling was tried in

which carcasses were allowed to hangin the water from the gunwale of the

ship. This method was abandoned be-cause the fat absorbed water andformed a sticky jell which nnade trim-ming difficult.

Considerable time could be savedif meat were cooled in a tank of cir-culating sea water, or ground warmand cooled in a hopper containing a

series of vertical refrigerated plates.

In either case, the meat could bedropped on a conveyor belt by the

butchers and conveyed to a chilling

tank or to the grinder.

The 15-hp. grinder used on the

Arctic Maid was satisfactory for grind-ing meat only. It was capable of grind-ing much larger volumes than the 2 to

3 tons per day produced by the experi-mental harvest. If bones were to beincluded, a larger grinder would beneeded.

The polyethylene bags used to

package the ground meat were satis-

factory for handling prior to freezing,

but they tore easily when the frozenmeat was handled. This permitted air

to circulate freely around the nneat

causing some dehydration and oxida-tion. Double -wall paper bags with the

inner surface coated with polyethylenewere also tried. These bags tore easilyduring handling prior to freezing,

especially if the outside of the bagbecame wet. A sturdier bag would bedesirable in any future sea lion proc-essing operation. There are a numberof bags available, such as a burlap-polyethylene combination or a multi-wall water-resistant paper bag con-taining one asphalt paper layer.

Staples which were used to closemost of the bags of meat were ineffi-

cient because of the time required to

hand staple each bag with five or six

staples. An unsuccessful attempt wasmade to use a heat sealing machine to

seal the polyethylene bags. The ma-chine usually overheated the thin poly-ethylene, causing it to shrink con-siderably in some areas , while in othersit did not seal at all. A machine for

stapling or sewing the bags would saveconsiderable time. With the water-resistant multiwall or the burlap-polyethylene bags, machine attachedwire ties could be used.

The rate of freezing the 50-poundbags of ground meat aboard the ArcticMaid was slow. Approximately 3 dayswere required to freeze them com-pletely. Any future operation wouldrequire a blast freezer or a plate

freezer for quick freezing the meat.

The yield of meat per animal waslow because a considerable amount of

meat was left on the discarded car-cass. Under the circumstances this

waste was unavoidable. The amount of

time required to trim all of the meatfrom the backbone and between the

ribs was too great to justify doing so.

12

The yield would have been increasedconsiderably if the rib cage could havebeen ground along with the meat. In

addition, the heart, lungs, kidneys, andspleen could have been included withthe meat. These organs alone wouldhave increased the yield per animalby approximately 50 pounds.

Sea lion liver has little value as asource of vitamin A. Analysis of coresamples taken from 30 bags of frozenlivers showed the vitamin A content to

be 13,550 units per gram of oil or249,500 units per pound of liver. ' Thelivers are satisfactory for mink ra-tions.

The hides are of little valuebecause of: (l) scars and bruises theanimals incur naturally and duringhandling; (2) cost of curing whichranges between 30 and 35 cents persquare foot; and (3) poor appearanceof the grain, which precludes com-mercial acceptance.^ Perhaps a portionof the hide could be used by the sou-venir industry in Alaska. For instance,the leather from the flippers might beused for items such as billfolds, andteeth could be used for making souve-nirs.

The portion of the carcass remain-ing after the meat has been trimmedoff, including the blubber, could beused for meal and oil.

There are other factors, asidefrom technological or econonnical con-siderations that might affect the suc-cess of future expeditions. Sea lions

habitually choose remote and relativelyinaccessible islands as rookery sites.The great majority of Alaska's rook-eries are located in the waters of theNorth Pacific, an area of frequentstomas. Stormy weather and its sec-ondary effect of surf might cause theloss of many days' operations . Weatherconditions along the Alaska Peninsula

'Analysis completed by a commercial testing labora-

tory,

^Personal communication between Albert D. Levy,

Washington Fish and Oyster Company of California, and

Poetch and Peterson, San Francisco, California.

and the Aleutian Chain were excep-tionally good during the spring andearly summer of 1959 and did notseriously hamper the Arctic Maid;even so, 9 days were lost during her2 -month cruise because of weather.However, weather is always an over-lying risk in any deep-sea fishingoperation and must be considered anormal hazard.

The cunnulative effects ofharvest-ing sea lion herds are, of course,unknown. If harvesting continues on anannual basis, it is certain to producelasting changes in herd structure,abundance, and perhaps distribution.Studies carried out by the AlaskaDepartment of Fish and Game and theFisheries Research Institute have pro-vided excellent information on presentdistribution and abundance. Informa-tion on behavior, reproduction, andother phases of life history has beenobtained, but is based on only a fewobservations and specimens.

Seasonal shifts in abundance dooccur. The greatest nunnbers of ani-mals are found on the rookeries duringthe pupping and breeding seasons, mid-May through mid- July (Mathisen, 1958).Continued harassment at this timemay force emigration from establishedrookeries to even more remote andinaccessible sites. Movement out ofhunted areas, laterally along the beachor to nearby rocks, was observed onall rookeries during the course of theexperimental harvest after 3 to 5 days'hunting.

The Arctic Mairf harvest consistedalmost entirely of males, because their

large size made them connmerciallymore attractive than the smaller fe-males. Cropping only males will notaffect herd productivity for a numberof years or as long as there is a sur-plus of breeding males. This is in-herent in the social structure of sealion herds. Breeding bulls maintainloosely organized harems. Mathisen(1958) states that the size of an indi-vidual harem does not remain fixed; abull noted to have 30 cows one daymight have 10 the next day and pos-sibly 35 the third day. Simiilarly, the

13

number of idle bulls is a changingfigure. Since harem bulls that arekilled are quickly replaced by idle

bulls, a great number of bulls wouldhave to be removed before the produc-tion of a herd would be affected. Con-trolling sea lion numbers or reducinga herd size by cropping only maleswould be a slow process. There wouldbe no sharp decrease in sea lion ac-tivities on the fishing grounds. If reduc-tion of the numbers of sea lions is anurgent and overriding consideration,then more females must be killed. If

sea lions can be successfully exploited,it may later become necessary to

regulate the harvest to preserve theresource.

Sea lion harvesting should takeplace during the pupping and breedingseason when the animals are mostavailable and least wary. On largerookeries specific areas should behunted alternately for a greater yield.On a hunt-rest basis animals wouldnot vacate an area quickly and wouldtherefore be available for a long periodof time.

If utilization of sea lion herdsshould prove a commercial success,the situation will be unique in havinginformation available for managementduring the initial stages of exploita-tion. Observations of herd structure,behavior, and life history should con-tinue and be concomitant with com-mercial developrment of this resource.

The problems encountered by thesea lion expedition were numerous.One of the main objectives was accom-plished when it was found that sealions could be taken in sufficient num-bers to make a harvest possible. Proc-essing problems kept production down,but the use of specialized equipmentwould overconne these.

The Arctic Maid harvested sealions from five rookeries in the NorthPacific Ocean between Kodiak Islandand Unimak Pass in the period fromMay 27 to July 15, 1959- During theexpedition 6 16 sea lions were killed,

of which 464 were ultimately processed.The yield was approximately 200 tonsof ground sea lion meat and 9 tons ofwhole livers. The sea lion productswere frozen and packaged in 50-poundbags. With the exception of a smallportion retained for experimental pur-poses, the entire amount of meat andlivers was distributed and sold throughcommercial channels to fur farmersfor use in mink rations. The meat wassold at the rate of 10 cents a pound,the livers at 12 cents a pound. Pos-sibilities for other markets exist, butthese are dependent on a stable annualharvest.

It is strongly advised that anyoneinterested in engaging in a sea lionfishery in Alaskan waters check withFederal and AlaskanState fishery regu-lations.

SUMMARY LITERATURE CITED

A commercial fishing connpany,under contract with the Bureau of Com-mercial Fisheries, conducted an ex-perinnental harvest of Steller sea lionsin Alaskan waters. The purpose of theexperiment was to determine whethersea lions could be harvested, proc-essed, and marketed in sufficient quan-tity to make a commercial venturepractical as a means of decreasingthe size of sea lion herds.

ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF FISH ANDGAME.

1957. Alaska Department of Fishand Game Annual Report for1957. 124 pp.

DASSOW, JOHN A.1956. Utilization of sea lions in

Alaska. U. S. Fish and WildlifeService, Commercial FisheriesReview, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 5-9.

14

KENYON, KARL W., AND VICTOR B.SCHEFFER.

1953. The seals, sea lions, and seaotter of the Pacific coast. U. S.Fish and Wildlife Service, Wild-life Leaflet 344, 28 pp.

KYTE, ROBERT M.1956. Technological studies on the

processing of sea lions. U. S.

Fish and Wildlife Service, Com-mercial Fisheries Review, vol.

18, no. 6, pp. 1-7.

MATHISEN, OLE A.1958. Sea lion studies in Alaska.

Transactions, 24th North Ameri-can Wildlife Conference, pp.346-356.

PIKE, GORDON C.1958. Food of the northern sea lion.

Fisheries Research Board ofCanada, Biological Station,Nanaimo, B. C, Progress Re-port 112, pp. 18-20.

MS #1006

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